TWEAK MY COOP~Tweaks on the Cheap

[RoseMarie1]

That wall came down easier than I had thought and is now ready for reconstruction....



Will be using this really great lumber we pulled out of the trash the other day in town...spent 20 min. taking out screws(most of which I can reuse) and nails and now have about $50 worth of premium grade lumber with which to build the rest of this coop tweak. Best part? FREE



Got the hardware to do this sliding door/gate and hope to get this project started and, hopefully, done on Saturday so I can get this rooster penned and waiting for breeding season.

I had scored a whole bag of antique dresser pulls some months back for next to nothing, so will be using a few of those as my gate handles. Should turn out looking pretty good. Sure wish I could score another old screen door before Saturday so I could make this whole wall a slider wall, using two screen doors that could slide either way for access to this pen.

Congrats Bee on your free find! Tickled pink for you and He ALWAYS provides doesn't He? <3

 

[Beekissed]

Yes, Rose...He does!

My brother contacted me tonight, said he was taking apart a triple bunkbed set he has had for years and wanted to know if I wanted the lumber...various 2x4, 2x6, three sheets of plywood, bolts, etc. Of course I said I wanted them!!!

I'm taking him a load of wood chips next weekend, so it's a great trade! Also give him a dozen eggs each time he's here and I have them.

All the sudden I have an abundance of lumber, so God must have other things planned for us here also....I just don't know what just yet.

I still haven't gotten to finish my pen yet...weather and events, not to mention old age, have kind of halted my progress.

 

[aprilgrem]

I am so happy that I came across this thread! It is amazing what y'all have accomplished with your finds. It has given me a big dose in inspiration. We just put our girls (only 3 so far) into their new coop about 2 weeks ago and we are already thinking of tweaks and things we want to work out. Y'all have def. given me some great ideas.

 

[Beekissed]

Welcome to the thread!!!! Can't wait to share ideas...we like stealing good ones from one another.

Saw a metal screen door at the habitat store today....the man said it was $10 and I said, "Well...that's too bad. If it were $5, I'd buy it!" He said, "Well, it must be $5 then!" It went home in our truck. Now I'll have two sliding screen doors on that spare pen! Keeps me from having to build a wall there, though I think I'll still have to build some pockets to receive these doors and keep them steady when they are closed. Any given time I'll be able to lift these doors off the track and have that whole wall open....will come in handy when I store things in that pen this coming winter, such as hay, bags of leaves, pumpkins and apples.

I'll spray paint these doors to match so it will all look more planned, so to speak...have lots of spray paint around here. Paint, like love, hides a multitude of sins.

Now I'll have two screen doors to use for dehydrating veggies this summer and also for covering cold frames next winter. JOY!

I also saved some HUGE, clear plastic bags~very heavy duty plastic~from my leaf scavenging this past fall, that will fit neatly over these doors as the plastic for my cold frame topper. LOVE repurposing things like that and it will make it so easy to convert these doors into cold frame tops.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Welcome to the thread!!!! Can't wait to share ideas...we like stealing good ones from one another.

Saw a metal screen door at the habitat store today....the man said it was $10 and I said, "Well...that's too bad. If it were $5, I'd buy it!" He said, "Well, it must be $5 then!" It went home in our truck. Now I'll have two sliding screen doors on that spare pen! Keeps me from having to build a wall there, though I think I'll still have to build some pockets to receive these doors and keep them steady when they are closed. Any given time I'll be able to lift these doors off the track and have that whole wall open....will come in handy when I store things in that pen this coming winter, such as hay, bags of leaves, pumpkins and apples.

I'll spray paint these doors to match so it will all look more planned, so to speak...have lots of spray paint around here. Paint, like love, hides a multitude of sins.

Now I'll have two screen doors to use for dehydrating veggies this summer and also for covering cold frames next winter. JOY!

I also saved some HUGE, clear plastic bags~very heavy duty plastic~from my leaf scavenging this past fall, that will fit neatly over these doors as the plastic for my cold frame topper. LOVE repurposing things like that and it will make it so easy to convert these doors into cold frame tops.

yea! Congrats! Man kind you gonna have loads of chicken pens.

 

[Beekissed]

Naw, Rose...just the one. I'm not one of those folks who believe in using only addition when doing chicken math. There's only so many chickens I want on this land, so I only need the one spare pen for extra activities.

Those sheets of plywood will come in handy from my brother's house, though....I'll use them in various ways.

 

[RoseMarie1]

Well I am sure glad He is providing for you!

 

[Beekissed]

Been working on my breeding pen tweak and it's coming along slowly. My old body and old building to which I'm adding new construction are both a little hard to work around....

Trying to keep construction level on a 20 yr old log building is a little bit of a challenge, plus using old and repurposed doors and such, but it's also very fun to meet that challenge. Working around things and making them work is always fun to me, especially if I'm using free and cheap materials....gives me a satisfaction that money spent does not. This lumber my brother gave me out of the bunkbeds he took apart is some really pretty stuff, as he has a clear coat of poly on them, so they look very warm and honey toned in appearance. Kind of pretty.

I hope to get that doorway finally framed out and the rest of the wall built today...will take pics if I manage to get it done. I'll have to work on the outside of the pen next week, as I'm adding a flip up shelter there to cover my outside roosts, may even decide to build a free standing roost that I can move inside or outside as needed.

This sliding door is going to be really neat! Will solve so many issues in that space due to the ramp up into the building being a foot away from this new wall. I'll no longer have to tie or prop open a door/gate to that pen if I want to leave it open for dog or chicken lounging. When not in use by the chickens, I can use that pen for my feed can, the general watering pan, for hay and leaf storage and this fall/winter I'll be using it for pumpkin and apple storage as well.

 

[Beekissed]

As promised...pics of my coop tweak on the breeding pen. This tweak didn't cost me much~$5 for an old metal storm door from the habitat store, $13 for a rolling track kit for my sliding door, and a few sheets of trellis that I was going to replace anyway, due to the old sheets being 20 yrs old. The screen door that slides was free, just had to be cut down to fit the space. All the screws were removed from lumber I scavenged out of the trash in town and reused in this project. Some of that lumber was used but most came from some bunk beds my brother deconstructed and gave me for the lumber.

The door on the left in this pic is my slider and the right side door opens on hinges.



The moving of this wall outward 2 ft. gave me 16 sq ft extra space in my pen. I'm using free standing roosts in there comprised of my two saw horses. Above the trellis and the half wall is deer netting that I already had here. The rest is just scraps of old lumber I had on hand, much of it is over 50 yrs old.



There at the last I added this old Armour meat box that I found at a flea market for a buck. Mounted it up there to hold all my chicken and dog tools and such.




Still got to add a pop door, add some little things to enhance my nesting spots, and add a little temporary run on it...that will just be made of deer netting, a T post and some existing posts. Will be putting the rooster in this tonight to get him ready for his breeding sessions.

 

[User395221]

That's fabulous, and it looks really nice too, with the trellis on the front. It doesn't look "added on using repurposed materials", it looks like it's always been part of the building. Very nice job.